The question is do we want to help preserve that history? Recent events in Mali have again put the reknowned "Timbuktu Manuscripts" in jeopardy. Now we have the opportunity to contribute to the preservation of these precious documents.
See the following videos and texts.
300,000 ancient manuscripts were saved from rebels in Timbuktu, but now face a slow death by rot
TheNextWeb
It’s a story that almost sounds like the plot of a pulp novel: in the face of a marauding religious threat, and war, a local team secretly smuggled hundreds of thousands of manuscripts out of Timbuktu, preserving them for study and future generations.
Bribes, violence, conflict, and danger were endured to save around 300,000 manuscripts, taken from Timbuktu to Bamako. It was not an effort in vain. The location where many of the manuscripts had been stored was eventually overtaken by rebels, and before French troops managed to intervene sufficiently, the religious groups that had taken over the Malian town demanded that all the paper burned. To boot, they banned the holiday celebrating their existence.
'Libraries in Exile' fights to save priceless manuscripts in Mali
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